Insights & News
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Deal or no deal? The angst continues.
29 July 2019With Brexit day pushed back to 31 October and the fate of the UK’s future relationship with the EU still up in the air, it is understandable that many EU, EEA and Swiss citizens (‘‘EEA citizens’’) on this side of the English Channel remain uncertain about how to protect their rights in the UK.
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Redeployment rights for pregnant employees and maternity returners announced
25 July 2019One of the parting shots of Theresa May’s Government has been to confirm its decision on plans to extend the right to redeployment in a redundancy situation to cover pregnant employees and those returning from maternity or adoption leave.
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Response published to consultation on misuse of confidentiality clauses
25 July 2019As part of a flurry of responses and new consultations issued in the last days of Theresa May’s Government, the response to the consultation on measures to prevent misuse of confidentiality clauses in the workplace has been published. It sets out a number of significant legislative proposals which, when implemented, will necessitate redrafting of these clauses in both employment contracts and settlement agreements.
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University ordered to pay £2.5 million in discrimination claim
24 July 2019The Employment Tribunal has awarded a leading economist and lecturer £2.5 million as part of a discrimination claim against the University of Southampton. Richard Werner, who worked as a professor for the university from 2004 to 2018 and is known for coining the term ‘quantitative easing’, has claimed that he was the victim of a “harassment and bullying” campaign between 2010 and 2018 which began after he suggested changes to what he deemed to be “broken procedures”.
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Consultation season is upon us!
24 July 2019Theresa May’s final days as prime minister have seen the launch of no fewer than seven consultation exercises on employment matters. While these will provide much food for thought over the summer holidays, it remains to be seen what approach the incoming administration led by Boris Johnson might take to the various issues under consideration.
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New report proposes radical whistleblowing reforms
19 July 2019The All Party Parliamentary Group for Whistleblowing (“APPG”) has published its report on the causes and impact of whistleblowing and their recommendations for an overhaul of the current laws for greater protection of whistleblowers.
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Secret recording of conversations is not necessarily gross misconduct
12 July 2019The Employment Appeal Tribunal has agreed that a claimant who secretly recorded a meeting with HR should have her compensation reduced, but did not accept that this was necessarily gross misconduct. The EAT also made a number of interesting comments about covert recordings and reductions of awards.
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Hospitality industry welcomes post-Brexit salary threshold review
10 July 2019On 24 June, the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the £30,000 minimum salary threshold it proposed for sponsoring skilled workers in the post-Brexit immigration system, which is due to be rolled out from 1 January 2021. This move has been welcomed by the hospitality industry as an opportunity to ensure it can sponsor medium skilled workers from 2021 without having to pay substantially above market rates.
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BA’s sky-high fine for GDPR breach
09 July 2019British Airways (BA) are potentially facing a £183m fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) following last year’s cyber-attack. The actual amount of the fine will be determined after representations are made by BA and by other supervisory authorities.
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Gender equality “roadmap” published
04 July 2019The Government Equalities Office has published a gender equality roadmap, which sets out proposed actions to tackle persistent gendered inequalities. This includes a number of potential changes to employment law.
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Unreasonable non-compete clause could be rescued by severance
03 July 2019The Supreme Court (“SC”) has given a landmark judgment about the limits of post-termination restrictions (“PTRs”) in employment contracts. It ruled that although a six-month non-compete clause went too far by restricting an employee from holding a minority shareholding in a competing business, the employer could still enforce the key part of the clause.
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Effectively dealing with workplace conflict
26 June 2019Disputes and conflict in the workplace such as grievances, disciplinary actions, bullying investigations, or even simple disagreements can be costly and time-consuming for businesses to deal with, and can have an adverse effect on the work environment and even how the business is perceived by those on the outside. This does not have to be the case, however. Effectively mediating staff issues and working to provide solutions, while challenging, is a crucial tool for business owners and HR professionals to have in order to ensure a happy and efficient workforce.
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Discrimination because of a perceived disability is unlawful confirms Court of Appeal
26 June 2019The Court of Appeal has found that it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of a mistaken perception that they have a progressive condition which would make them unable to perform the full functions of the role in future.
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UK CAC upholds the relocation of European Works Council arrangements to Ireland due to Brexit
21 June 2019The Central Arbitration Committee (“CAC”) has ruled that multinational companies headquartered outside of the European Union are not prohibited from relocating their European Works Council (“EWC”) arrangements from the UK in anticipation of Brexit. Relocation does not undermine employees’ information and consultation rights and is in accordance with the fundamental EU law principle of freedom of establishment.
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The EU adopts a work-life balance directive
21 June 2019The Directive, which brings in new rights for carers and working parents, must be implemented in all EU member states by the middle of 2022. We look at what it means for employers.
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Court of Appeal decides that unions do not have a veto during collective bargaining
17 June 2019The Court of Appeal (“CA”) has ruled that offers made directly by an employer to its employees in relation to pay and working hours did not amount to an unlawful attempt to bypass collective bargaining contrary to section 145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (“TULRCA”). S.145B is only engaged if the employer’s purpose is to stop employees’ terms of employment from being determined by collective agreement on a permanent basis.
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IR35 – What is changing and what you need to do
17 June 2019The government is committed to cracking down on “disguised employment”. In order to achieve that, the IR35 rules are changing in April 2020.
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The EU gets Transparent and Predictable
14 June 2019The EU’s Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive - long in the gestation – is on the brink of becoming law. We look at what it means.
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Voluntary overtime must be included in holiday pay if sufficiently regular and settled
12 June 2019The Court of Appeal (“CA”) has confirmed that the Working Time Directive (“WTD”) requires voluntary overtime to be included in holiday pay if it is sufficiently regular and settled to amount to normal remuneration. On the wording of their NHS contracts, the claimants were also entitled to have both compulsory and voluntary overtime included in their holiday pay.
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Ask about... Retail, Fashion and Hospitality
12 June 2019Many of our clients in the retail, fashion and hospitality sector face similar HR issues. Each month one of the members of our team will identify an issue, ask how you would deal with it and provide our advice. This month we asked Emma...